Reflections
by kopiella
Summary: As a man slowly fades away, he thinks about the men who became his family and helped shape him into the man he was.


Everything was cold. The floor of the alleyway, the air that clung around his silhouette, his body... He felt extremely, bitterly cold. He had never expected death to be so cold, however it was a situation that people only experienced once, and there were never any survivors to tell the story of how it went. He had lived through several near-death experiences, when you signed on to be a cop, you always lived with the knowledge that you might not come home alive. Except, he always expected his death to be in the line of duty. Not when he was off duty.

_It was one of his rare days off. Being a cop was time consuming, but being a Five-O Detective meant you had no social life, and having a day off came around as often as Christmas. Anytime he had a day off, he would spend it relaxing, and getting caught up on work that had been neglected. This day was no exception. He had awoke early, and set about getting his apartment more organized. He had then gone grocery shopping for some non-perishable food items, since he didn't know when he'd get the chance to actually eat at home again. The rest of the day, he spent relaxing and resting. As it got later, he felt like talking a walk and wound up downtown. As he was passing by a dark alleyway, he heard a scuffle from deep within the alley. Cautiously, he entered the alley and called out to whoever was in there. Hardly any time passed before a frightened man ran out of the alley and into the streets, without ever looking back. Sensing that he would run into trouble if he proceeded into the alley, the detective debated on whether or not he should stay or leave. His cop instinct told him to stay. He didn't see the man with the gun until it was too late. The gunman demanded that the detective hand over any and all money. The detective knew he should cooperate, but he had no money on him. The gunman was nervous and visibly high on drugs. He didn't waste anytime in shooting down the detective and stumbling away. Just a druggie, high on his last dose, needing bread for his next. Despite the drugs, the shooter had been able to hit the detective where it would kill him, but not instantly. The detective lay in the cold, dark alleyway alone, awaiting the arrival of death._

He stared up at the sky, amazed at the beautiful clash of daytime and nighttime colors. He thought about various members of his family, but there was nobody he was very close to. His death would affect his blood family, as much as it would affect his work _ohana_, the men who had become friends, and brothers to him.

When he had first joined Five-O, he had never imagined that the group of detectives would become as close as they were. Yet they had. They had been forced to make several sacrifices, but in the end it was worth it. From the start, his no-nonsense boss Steve McGarrett had made it quite clear that joining Five-O meant signing the death certificate to your social life. It was no lie, it had been ages since he had met a girl, or went out for a beer. At first, McGarrett was not open to having any close relationships with any of his subordinates. They were only there to serve and protect the people of Hawaii.

He couldn't stop the weak smile from painting itself on his face as he thought of the man responsible for McGarrett's change in personality towards his men. Along with the arrival of the young, energetic Danny Williams, was a new spirit of life. Danny had brought life to Hawaii Five-O, and a feeling of love and family. McGarrett had always had a tough armor suit on, but Danny found the crack in the suit and edged his way into the hard but caring heart of Steve McGarrett. Once Danny had won Steve over, the iron boss had suddenly opened up to the rest of the team, and a true _ohana_ was formed.

Wincing as the pain in his chest began to make itself known again, he shifted his thoughts to the only family man of Five-O, and his un-official partner, Chin-Ho Kelly. Although he wasn't _that_ much older than the rest of Five-O, Chin became a father figure to all of the squad. He always had a piece of wisdom to share with one of his friends in need. He brought a sense of stability to Five-O.

He smiled in content, thinking about those three men. They brought out the best and sometime the worst in him. They had stuck with him through the good times and the bad. Even though Chin already had a family, the four of them had become a family too. Always standing by each others side, and staying with them through everything. He silently prayed that they could move on after his death. In the distance, he heard the oh-so-familiar sound of screeching tires and sirens, that was the Boss's trademark. He took his last breath, and left the earthly paradise, for a new kind of eternal paradise. His gravestone would read Kono Kalakaua –died with a smile on his face.

Thanks for reading my first attempt at writing fanfiction...Please review.


End file.
